Beginning with the fantasy "Stand Up and Cheer," she cranked out dozens of movies in which she tapped, sang and otherwise performed for an audience in need of distraction, often on behalf of studio 20th Century Fox, whose sagging fortunes she helped reverse.

Though Temple's movies often thrust her into challenging situations -- the suicide-inflected tale "Little Miss Marker" or the marooned movie "Captain January" -- she was nearly always solving problems and saving the day with a dose of music and good cheer.

Most famously, she sang catchy numbers like "The Good Ship Lollipop" from the movie "Bright Eyes" and twinkle-toed with performers such as Bill Robinson in the 1935 hit "The Little Colonel." She also performed with numerous other, more wizened stars of the era including Buddy Ebsen. She received an honorary Oscar in 1934.

Shirley Temple had made 40 movies by the time she was a teenager, though America's interest in her was primarily as a child star, and she retired in her early 20s. She went on to become a prominent diplomat, political fundraiser and outspoken breast-cancer activist. (For the full Times obituary career please click here.)

But it was her presence on the screen for which she will be best remembered. Long before it was common to see child actors in mainstream movies, Temple anchored films with a sunny joie de vivre.

Temple also presaged the modern child character who is wiser than, and able to solve the problems of, the far older grownups around her, now a staple of everything from television sitcoms to indie-film dramas in the modern era. More on her film career and influence shortly.

In 2006, Shirley Temple was given the 42nd Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achivement Award honor. A few weeks before she received the honor, the former child star talked on the phone from her home in Woodside, Calif. with Susan King about the award, and her life in Hollywood and afterwards.

Shirley Temple Black, the dimpled curly-haired scene-stealer, warmed hearts from the start. She died this week at age 85 at her home near San Francisco, and though Temple Black went on to lead a storied life well outside Hollywood, there are still a few facts that some readers may not know. Here's...